"The Next Generation"

When looking at the Web, it's interesting for me to see how much of an
influence the personal sites have had on the commercial sites. Tricks
have, for the most part, been proliferated by those unrewarded souls on
the 'Net who put unfathomable amounts of time into making their own
personal sites look the absolute best. While this has been true in the
past, is it still the case? Have personal sites ceased to be the
innovators? At what point do Web authors get tired? When do the new
authors begin treading the same ground?

Let me clarify the term "personal site." This site is personal. First
and foremost, this site is an expression of myself and does not represent
views of other people. However, a site like the Fray, a collaborative
effort of many writers, is also personal. It's not selling a product --
what it does is for free. Personal sites are (supposed to be)
non-commercial efforts.

So when most of the HTML tricks came about, companies still scoffed at
the Internet and saw it as a place for geeks and antisocial Dungeons
and Dragons players slash physicists. To some degree, companies still
do. Or, at least, they don't understand that you don't
sell a product over the Internet -- you inform people
about it. Anyway... I remember the days of Scarecrow's ASCII site,
David Siegel, and other notable one-man efforts. Siegel came up with
the now infamous single-pixel transparent .gif trick which let people
fudge exact placement of text and images in HTML. Derek Powazek
experimented much later with frames and how to lay out pages creatively.
Alexis Massie screwed around with TABLE cell background colors. And it's
quite obvious some personal site probably came up with the side navigation
bar thingamajig.

All these examples illustrate how the standard of design right now for the
Web has been influenced greatly by the efforts of individuals on the Web
who created their own sites to exhibit, practice, and experiment with
HTML and Web design. Fine. Wonderful. I owe a lot to these people --
such tricks I use without even thinking about it these days.

Hmm, but there's been a lull in what's been coming out of the personal
site realm. I haven't seen anything truly creative in awhile as far
as personal sites go (and I include myself on that list, for sure).
The neatest site I've seen (and this is by no means a full-fledged
compliment) is the Birth
of Tragedy. Now bear with me on this one. Once you get past the
initial navigation which isn't all that intuitive, you'll find that
the individual essays look pretty good, all dollied up with their own
themes and moods. I love seeing text merged with images in a clean,
flowing manner. It's quite a hard thing to do, actually, since the
way HTML is, it tends to make you separate text from images in your mind.
It's not quite as integrated as Acrobat or PageMaker would be.

Part of the stagnation of creativity in the personal site community has
to do with the limits of HTML. After some furious upgrades from Netscape,
and some followups by Microsoft, HTML now has basically all the tags in
its repertoire. The expansion of HTML is dead, basically, and the
emphasis is now on programming and dynamic content: Javascript, Java,
DHTML, XML, that sort of stuff. And I think this is a step that most
personal site authors can't make.

HTML is easy. Dirt easy. It's not very cryptic or hard to get into.
Basically, you use <P> to begin a paragraph and </P> to end
it. And you don't even need the closing tag. It's optional. That's
the sort of stuff you need to know to use HTML. But programming is a
whole new animal. Thankfully, I come from the generation which is
taught Pascal in high school whether we want to or not. So I already
had a year of that language (which is quite a good language to start
in if you really have problems understanding why languages have this
and that) to go along with the computer background I had acquired on my
own. Java and Javascript I picked up while trying to add the latest
and greatest technologies to my site. Okay, so I usually deleted the
stuff a week later, but I learned how to do it when I did it the
first time.

I'm quite a good programmer, but I don't have the mind for it. The tasks
seem repetitive and pointless, particularly when enforced by the arbiter
of my grade for the class. I'm not the sort who lusts for a quiet day
at a desk typing up code which allocates memory that 7% faster than what
the other guy in my department could do. I do, however, enjoy programming
interfaces, which means the Web is perfect for me. And now that
the browsers are beginning to support more advanced scripting and
programming languages, the power I have is even greater.

But will my peers, people typically five to fifteen years older than me
adjust as easily? My guess is not, since they haven't already. I've
seen little progress made, usually in the form of stylesheets which
make links change color when the mouse runs over them. (Thank God for
that, by the way -- people would try ever trick under the sun to get
that to work and now it only takes one small tag attribute...) Javascript
and DHTML really do seem to be beyond what most people are willing to
learn. It's understandable, I suppose -- what people want to do first
and foremost is write down their ideas on their sites, not develop a
customization menu for viewers.

Understandable...although now I look to people with no name in order to
get ideas. I go to sites like
Inside DHTML and
Javascript Tip of
the Week for help. These are the sites where I have to now gauge
the progress of the Web and its technologies. I can't rely on the
creativity and curiosity of the personal site authors anymore.

And that's really a shame. Personal sites are not really subject to
keeping with a consistent theme or anything similar. They can code up
a really cheesy Shockwave Flash script depicting the exploits of Mr.
Gifford and throw it on a page right under their "Loyally Wedded
Celebs" section. Doesn't matter. Plus, personal site authors (like
myself, again) tend to have plenty of time for these endeavors.

But it won't happen. Programming and scripting is where it's at. And
personal site authors, who are having a hard enough time writing anything
worth reading, won't bother with the new stuff until some personal
authors start doing it. And even then, they'll just leech the code. ;)

So that leads me up to this point in my discussion: I really don't
identify with the other personal site authors on the Web. I'm quite
aware of all the goings-on, and I still visit some sites in vain, hoping
for new content which is always promised but never fulfilled. But I don't
really want anything to do with these people. I have no idea what they're
trying to say and what they're trying to accomplish. I seek the honesty
and sincerity that most personal sites purport to have, but it always seems
like they don't have anything to say anyway...why bother being honest?
Hell, lie about your life... At least it'll get
interesting...

BenTurner.com has always had one basic goal behind it in its near three
year existence: it should do its best to express who I am and to serve
as a history of my development from boy to man. This whole thing, with
the mood script that keeps you out of the site, with the pretentious
and arrogant essays, and with the ambivalent motives in seeking attention
while warding off attention may be comical, absurd, and even juvenile to
you, but I take the site very seriously. I have admitted many times that
the Soapbox does tend to indulge in ranting and using invectives, but
that's the whole point of the thing -- catharsis really does keep one
sane. The rest of the site seems an exercise in arrogance, but all it
really is is a display of frustration with a world that really doesn't
make any sense at all. You see, BenTurner.com gets down to the most
basic emotions which we all are familiar with. In all the pomposity,
diversions, and even confessionals, I am reaching a level of sincerity
many other personal site authors never get to. Correct me if I'm wrong.

And here it begins. I cannot make sense of other sites. They're completely
inane and pointless to me. What the Hell is up with the window/eye/beach
metaphors, people? Another site, another frigging metaphor. You know,
I received a few foul comments about my choosing the domain name
BenTurner.com to base my operations from, but please... I can tell
just by looking at domain names whether a site's good or not. Domain
names using verbs? Probably not worth looking at. Cute little phrases?
Vapid content detected... Look, people, it may be a little arrogant
to name a site after your own name, but at least I'm acknowledging the
fact that domain names for single authors are just vanity plates.
Enough already.

You want the day to fit on a soundtrack
Get a story, get a life, and get back
You've got nothing to shout about
You're over...and out.

-"Tesko Suicide", Sneaker Pimps

And the content! Even Pliny the Younger's painstakingly retouched letters
about the daily life of a Roman aristocrat are more fascinating than what
I read in online diaries. What's the point in describing the goings-on of
one's every day to a mass audience? It contributes nothing to the
consciousness of man. Philosophers won't open their eyelids at 3 AM,
revealing their enlightened ocular orbs of reason, exclaiming, "The
parking ticket from Dave's entry on July 16th -- oh, the transformation
from human to criminal beast!" Do you really want to know what those
details are good for? They're good for girlfriends or boyfriends who
live thousands of miles away, across whole oceans. They're good for
that love in your life who cannot be physically close, but can make up
for it with reliving all that you did that day, through your own words.
And that...even that...that is something private. Few things are more
settling to me than when other people finally get some attention and
get so swept up in it all that they forget to talk to me.

Finally, I don't understand sites closing down for restructuring. I
don't know if this is the case for everyone, but just about every
personal site I see has either just reopened or is closed for redesign.
These authors will come up with a great idea, create a site for it,
publicize it until everyone's sick of it, and then they close the site
down, only to return later with a brand new idea. And this goes on and
on and on and on.

This behavior has to be engrained in these people -- no doubt it extends
into eating habits, dating histories, and various other things.

Is there any other explanation than the fact that these people get
off completely on the novelty of things? Quite a lot of people will
date a lot, really getting into the whole scam (and we all know dating's
a scam...you lose more than you gain, which makes me glad Anna and I
completely skipped all the uncertainty part and went straight to the
good, romantic "TAKEN" stage), reaching limerance as their hearts flutter
with the prospect of a new significant other to show off, do the same
things they did with previous significant others (but since it's the
first time, the counter resets...), and, well, sleep with. Once that
lust and intrigue wear off, these people leave. This is the point when
people come up with all the nonsense about "the love being gone," even
if the relationship started just a few weeks before. Same with sites.
People become so proud of themselves for coming up with
a brand-spanking new idea which is really just retrofitting an old idea
with a new look and a different, unknowing audience. They tell all their
friends, come up with a half-decent design, and wait for the attention
and flattery to pour in. It's good for awhile, but then they get tired
of having to actually update the damn site and come up
with new ideas, and adapt to what people want...and they quit. Yes,
it's the big "we're down right now, but join us when such-and-such
premieres" message.

Few die-hard personal site authors don't say something on their sites
which infers that their site means the world to them, the representation
of their life in the form of electrons lagging across the world. Then
what does it say about a person when he shuts down his site, only to
rename it and reopen it later? Quitter. That's what it says.

I believe in redesigns. I believe in showing off what I've learned
and seeing how good I've become at this stuff. I periodically redesign
sections of my site if I believe I can do it better. To me, it's
keeping my skills sharp. But, you know, since I've had a web site, I've
never really changed the core of it. There's still the main area with
the menu, plus all the off-shoot information pages. I have the section
which holds my personal writings, and I've even kept the name "Soapbox"
for quite awhile. You see, when I come up with an idea, it's a great
idea. It's not an idea that I grow tired of. It's practical and it's
flexible. I plan these things in advance so I don't feel like I have
to change the whole philosophy every other week.

Lance Arthur's Glassdog has stayed
pretty much the same, too. Not a coincidence, I think, I've always thought
highly of Mr. Arthur. I've always been impressed not only with his
design, but the content of his site. And he doesn't fiddle around with
the name and goals of his site, even if he changed his personal writing
section from the "Experience" to "Life Serial." The idea behind it
remained pretty much the same. And this commitment and stick-to-it-iveness
that Mr. Arthur has somehow translates into writing that I enjoy. Perhaps
what I like about what he writes is that he doesn't quit and start over --
he thinks about what he's done and adapts it to make it better. I can
always rely on Mr. Arthur to be at his site when I go there. No
redirections to other domains of his. Maybe this will change in the
future, but to date, I've always felt I can depend on Mr. Arthur to be
a worthwhile author to keep up with.

Allow me this waxing of didacticism. In order to create a dependable
site that won't betray you by begging for attention, start out with a
plan and a goal. Develop content which not only informs, but begs for
followup questions and thinking. Even HTML guides teach you so that you
can apply your creativity and construct complicated, slick Web pages.
But describing the writing habits of obscure characters who are only
known inside your clique does nothing. It's like reading the medical
log for a coma patient. It's all the same.

And all these useless habits and styles... Why do new personal site
authors tend to pick up on these? Surely not because they're
inspired by daily accounts of Evian consumption...
I will admit that those who have been around for awhile have settled
down and found what they're best at, and what other people like with
what they do... But how come new people don't pick up where the
experienced authors left off? It's reinventing the wheel. It's
negligent and lazy to start a new ambitious site without seeing what
other authors have gone through first. Has the personal site genre really
changed much from its conception? I'd have to say no. I think people
are pretty much taking the same steps as they learn more and more about
HTML and Web design. Few desire to skip ahead and begin ahead of the
pace.

Where does this leave the personal sites? Leaves it in a lot of trouble.
We're recycling old material over and over, getting nowhere and alienating
more and more people who are tired of reading the same things. No wonder
people turn more and more to strictly informational sites and big-time
editorial zines when they use the Web. There's no direction or passion
left!

Perhaps programming and more advanced work in Web design will weed out
the hacks who have (and this is good in some respects) managed to succeed
so far. Maybe people will put more thought into their elaborate schemes
and metaphors when they have to code the algorithm for multimedia
tours of their home pantries (or of their South Park dioramas...I don't
really know what they're into these days).

Maybe the days when ideas can be attached to actual people, and not
faceless designers who develop content for big companies but receive no
credit for it, are over. Maybe all that you can do with HTML has been
done already, and people have to get into programming in order to find
the new stuff.

Maybe I'm just overreacting. ;)

But I'll tell you this: a lot of people are quitting on the Web, and no
one worthy of the task is following them up. And me? Well, I'm not
going anywhere. This is who I am, and this site is one thing I believe in.